Got Coffee?

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Travel
agency H.I.S. Co. said Tuesday that a robot will serve coffee to customers at a
cafe it plans to open next month at its flagship branch in central Tokyo.

The
agency’s new Henn Na Cafe (strange cafe) in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward will feature a
robotic arm and an automated coffee maker in the store.

The
move will add to the company’s series of services using robots, including at
the Henn Na Hotel (strange hotel) in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, where a
dinosaur robot welcomes guests at the front desk.

At
the Shibuya cafe, customers will be greeted by the U.S.-made robot, which has
an attached screen showing facial expressions.

“Hello.
Would you like some delicious coffee?” the machine asks in Japanese.

To
order a drink, customers first need to buy a ticket at a vending machine. The
robot then scans a QR code on the ticket to process the order.

The
robotic barista grabs a paper coffee cup and moves it toward the coffee machine
before pressing a start button. The robot then places the finished drink on a
reception counter.

The
¥320 ($3) cups of coffee take three to four minutes to be served. The robot can
also discard coffee beans and clean filters.

“Using
artificial intelligence, we want to have (the robot) learn smooth movements,”
an H.I.S. official said.

Christopher H. Hendon, a chemist at MIT, discovered the importance of water in coffee after overhearing a conversation between two frustrated baristas.

"They were having problems with coffee that tasted good one day and not another," Hendon previously told Business Insider. While that's a frustrating mystery for a coffee shop with exacting standards, but "from a chemistry point of view, that's an interesting problem," Hendon said.

Water can be "hard" (full of minerals like magnesium) or "soft" (most distilled water falls into this category).

Below is a map of the US that shows how water hardness varies from place to place. Dark-purple areas show where the softest water flows, red shows the hardest water, and white and blue are somewhere in between. Hardness can also vary over seasons, as the dissolved minerals can be diluted by a flood of spring rain or amplified by road salts and melting snow.

Hendon teamed up with baristas Lesley and Maxcell Colonna-Dashwood — who won the 2015 UK Barista Championship — and they found that different kinds of "hardness" in water bring out significantly different flavors in coffee. (Hendon ran the experiments using a computer, while the coffee shop owners actually brewed sample cups.)

Roasted coffee beans are packed with compounds that give coffee is distinct aroma, mouthfeel, and taste. Those include citric acid, lactic acid, and eugenol (a compound that adds a "woodsy" taste). The amounts vary from one roasted batch of beans to the next, giving you an enjoyably different sensory experience each time.

Water, meanwhile, has a complexity all its own — higher levels of ions like magnesium and calcium make it "harder."

Here's the key: Some of the compounds in hard water are "sticky" and preferentially grab certain compounds in coffee when they meet in your brewing device. The more eugenol the water hangs on to, for example, the woodsier the taste of your coffee will be.

Magnesium is particularly sticky, so water that's high in magnesium will make coffee with a stronger flavor (and higher levels of caffeine). Hard water can also have high levels of bicarbonate, which Hendon found could lead to more bitter flavors coming through.

But while hard water is a bit of a gamble, depending on which minerals are present in higher concentrations, soft water seems to have no benefits at all. Its chemical composition "results in very bad extraction power," Hendon explained.

Soft water often contains sodium, but that has no flavor stickiness (for good or bad flavors), Hendon found. That means that you'll get a much stronger flavor from the same beans if you use high-magnesium "hard water" in place of distilled or softened water.

Hendon and his barista colleagues published their research in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, and eventually wrote a book, "Water for Coffee," that explains why lovers of the drink should worry about more than just beans.

"Water can transform the character of a coffee," the team wrote. An updated second edition of the book hits shelves in early 2018, according to its website.

A chemically perfect cup

Unlike Hendon, the average coffee lover is not a chemist. You can't easily alter the composition of your water supply every time you want a delicious cup.

But you don't have to. Understanding that the kind of water you use matters will help you achieve the perfect brew — even if you're stuck with whatever comes out of your tap.

To start, you can look up the hardness of your water online (New Yorkers can call 311), and use that information to buy beans that are meant for "soft" or "hard" water. Hendon said that's the kind of thing upscale roasters will know.

Sure, you won't know the specific compounds in your water — that's the kind of rigorous coffee science Hendon and Colonna-Dashwood relied on to place fifth overall in the World Barista Championship. But you'll already be a step ahead if you buy from a local roaster.

When roasters test their beans, they do so using local water, so you can at least assume that locally-roasted coffee is optimized for the chemistry of your water. That's the opposite of a large chain like Starbucks, which, according to Hendon, uses totally pure water to ensure a completely uniform taste across the country.

Friday, November 10, 2017

Drinking 3 coffees a day could help extend your life,
British research has found

Research also shows the benefits of a cup of coffee one hour
before a work-out

Drinking 4 cups of coffee a day almost halves the risk of
deadly mouth cancer

And coffee contains several substances that can affect
metabolism, experts say

For years, we were told that caffeine was bad for us - and
in the battle of the hot drinks, coffee always came off worse.

But today, barely a week goes by without the health benefits
of the beverage being extolled.

Indeed just last week, Portuguese researchers declared that
three cups of coffee a day may help people with chronic kidney disease live
longer.

The research adds to the growing body of evidence that the
drink has a host of health benefits – and that commonly held beliefs that
coffee dehydrates you are just a myth.

So, what is the truth about coffee?

IT COULD HELP YOU LIVE LONGER

Simply drinking three coffees a day could help extend your
life, British research has found.

Two major studies independently found consuming up to three
cups a day reduces the risk of an early death.

The papers, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine,
found links between coffee and reduced risks of liver disease, circulatory
problems and diseases linked to the digestive tract.

The drink also seems to reduce inflammation and boost the
immune system, researchers discovered.

Rather than caffeine, it's thought the antioxidant plant
compounds in coffee are responsible for the longevity benefit.

As a result, people who drink decaffeinated coffee are also
protected, the researchers found.

IT MAKES WORK-OUTS LESS PAINFUL

Research has shown that people who had a cup of coffee one
hour before a work-out could exercise for longer.

'It's thought that caffeine may block chemicals that cause
the muscles of become tired and uncomfortable during exercise,' explains Fiona
Hunter, a nutritionist for Healthspan.

Caffeine works on a system in the brain and spinal cord (the
adenosine neuromodulatory system) that's involved in pain processing.

And because caffeine blocks adenosine, a biochemical that
plays an important role in energy transfer and therefore exercise, lead
researcher Professor Robert Motl, from the University of Illinois, wanted to
see if it could also reduce the pain that comes when we work out.

He found it did – regardless of whether people consumed
caffeine regularly or not.

There were two groups: people who consumed very little, if
any caffeine, and those who had around 400 milligrams a day, the equivalent of
three to four cups of coffee.

Both groups saw the same reduction in pain during exercise
after caffeine consumption.

Professor Motl believes the finding could help us battle
through the workout for longer.

'If we could give people a little caffeine and reduce the
amount of pain they're experiencing, maybe that would help them stick with that
exercise,' he said.

SLASHES MOUTH CANCER RISK

Drinking four cups of coffee a day almost halves the risk of
deadly mouth cancer – regardless of whether a person drinks or smokes.

Researchers at the American Cancer Society found that
sipping the beverage every day has a powerful protective effect against tumours
that form in the mouth and throat.

Scientists found decaffeinated coffee also reduced the risk,
although to a lesser extent, while drinking tea did nothing to prevent the
disease.

BUSTING COMMON COFFEE MYTHS

IT DOESN'T DEHYDRATE YOU

The idea that drinking coffee dehydrates us is a myth.

In fact, a few cups of coffee a day is as hydrating as
water, Birmingham University researchers claimed in a 2014 study.

Their industry-funded study argues the idea that coffee
dehydrates us is based on research done on samples of caffeine more 80 years ago
– and this research is not relevant to modern life.

To find out, the researchers asked 50 healthy men to drink
either four mugs of water or coffee a day for three days and then switch.

The men ate the same food during the two parts of the study
and were banned from vigorous exercise and alcohol.

Tests of blood and urine samples showed the men were just as
well hydrated when they drank coffee and when they had water.

They also passed the same amount of urine, the journal PLOS
ONE reports.

IT 'DOESN'T CAUSE PALPITATIONS/IRREGULAR HEARTBEATS'

A wealth of evidence has found no link between the two.

Indeed, the British Heart Foundation states: 'studies which
have investigated the link between caffeine and abnormal heart rhythms, or
cardiac arrhythmias, have found that moderate amounts of caffeine do not
necessarily lead to life threatening arrhythmias.

'This implies that drinking a modest amount of coffee should
not increase your risk.

IT DOESN'T TRIGGER HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE

Research published in the European Journal of Public Health
states high blood pressure is mainly caused by factors such as obesity, lack of
physical activity and a high salt intake – with the impact of coffee being
quite small by comparison.

In fact, it states the slight increase in blood pressure
level caused by coffee is the same that experienced while holding a
conversation.